Campbell Chapel Free Will Baptist Church

Ironton, Ohio

Campbell Chapel FWBC of Ironton Ohio - Pastor Bob Bradley

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Free Will Baptist Church

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Be Not Deceived

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Bob Bradley

_________________________ 

I Corinthians 6:1-11

 

1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?

2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.

5 I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?

6 But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.

7 Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?

8 Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

 

 

Paul went to Corinth and he spent 18 months there.  He established the church here at Corinth.  Corinth was a city that was very immoral.   We call Las Vegas, “sin city”, if we would have lived in Corinth at this time, we could have called Corinth that.  Corinth was a very wicked place; a lot of horrible things went on in the city of Corinth.  However, Paul was there and people began to be saved.  Things began to prosper and we know that he established a church there.  As we read and study about some history we know that they didn’t have buildings like we have now.  However, they met in buildings or in public places.  There was probably more than just one congregation at Corinth. 

 

We know that after Paul leaves Corinth, he goes to Ephesus and spends some time there.  He finds out that they are having some difficulties in Corinth.  He gets word from some folks and the reason that we have I Corinthians is because Paul is answering some of the questions that had been asked by a delegation that had came to him who were asking him some questions about order and doctrine and different things in the church.  They were having all kinds of problems.  I Corinthians came into being because Paul was answering the questions that this delegation had that came to him.

 

When we get to chapter 6, it is a very unique chapter.  I don’t remember ever talking about this chapter before or preaching about it.  I am sure that in the different studies that we have had down through the years that we have taught through the book of I Corinthians, but I don’t remember using this for a text.  That neither her nor there. 

 

They were having difficulty.  One of the difficulties was that Christian people were suing Christian people.  In other words, they would have a little dispute over something and instead of working out their problems themselves or seeking some spiritual counsel from someone or going to some spiritual advisors then they would just go down, get a lawyer, go to court and sue one another.  They were suing one another over all kinds of minor issues.  We know that Paul is not speaking against law suits necessarily, but he is speaking against Christian people suing against Christian people. 

 

If that happens, and that’s going on then there is something wrong in somebody’s life.  There is something wrong there.  If we have difficulties, we do not need to take our problems before the unbelievers or unjust and allow them to settle our problems for us.  I know sometimes that we have to go to court sometimes with employers or insurance companies and so forth—that is not what he is talking about.  He is talking about Christian people that say they are saved and living in the will of God suing one another in a court of law.  That is what Paul is talking about here.

 

That’s one of the big problems here is that they were suing one another and they were having all kinds of problems and he gets down to verse 9 and he say something.

 

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

 

Now he makes something very plain here and for the next few verses he is going to deal with a subject that was very real in Corinth, but is very real today.  The moral laxity that was going on in the church in Corinth; if we could have been there it would be a whole lot like we see in the church world today.  I know that not every church has people that are doing what was going on in Corinth.  As we look at the church world-wide, as we look at what we call organized religion, all across America and all across the world then the moral laxity or in a lot of our churches or in a lot of people’s lives there is no right or wrong.  That is really what morality is all about.  It about what is right or wrong and living what is right. 

 

In a lot of people’s lives today they don’t think that there is a right or wrong.  They think that there is a lot of gray area.  We have a lot of people that goes to church today that feels that way.  They feel like there is no absolutes with God; that there is nothing that we can do since that we go to church and since that God is a loving God then there is really nothing that we can’t do that God would really judge us over.  If we have that and we think that then we are dead wrong because there are things that God will judge us for.

 

He makes a statement here that I want you to get.

 

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

 

That is telling me that righteous people are going to go to heaven; saved people are going to go to heaven and unsaved people are not going to go to heaven.  Does everybody agree with that?  People can live righteous or they can live unrighteous.

 

Many people at the church here in Corinth were living unrighteous and Paul wanted them to understand, that if they were living a life that was not right, doing things that was unpleasing to God then there were not going to go to heaven.  Paul wanted them to understand that.  People today need to hear the truth.  People today need to understand that there is only one way to heaven and that is by living right and living righteous.  We can’t live in sin and go to heaven.  We cannot live in sin.  We just cannot set our own rules and our own guidelines and expect to go to heaven.  We can’t go that way.

 

Paul says there are some absolutes with God.  Even though this was 1900 years ago, God has not changed any.  They are seeing some absolutes with God. 

 

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

 

He uses three words, “be not deceived.”  There are many folks today who think that because of who they are and what they may do on Sunday morning or what they may do down through the week or because of what Grandma did or because of this one  or that one did; they really think that God is going to overlook their sin.

 

Paul says “do not be deceived.  Do not be deceived into thinking that God is not going to judge you.”  God is going to judge sin.  Sin is not going to go to heaven.  If I am a sinner or you are a sinner, if we are living an unrighteous life, then we are not on our way to heaven.  Its time we got a grip on that because there are some absolutes with God.  Without any reservation, I can say that the living unrighteous life, if you are living that way today and you die that way today; you are not going to heaven. 

 

It doesn’t matter what the political party says.  It doesn’t matter what all these folks say that is running for re-election and running for political offices; it doesn’t matter what they say.  God is the one that made the rules.  God is the one that set the standard.  God is the one that says you are going to go or you are not going to go.  We had better believe Him and let these other guys do what they want to because God is going to judge wickedness.  He is going to do that.  Count on that. 

 

You might not be able to count on whether you can go to work tomorrow or not, you may not count on your car starting when you get in the parking lot, you may not be able to count on a lot of different things, but you can count on one thing.  God is going to judge sin.  Count on that.

 

Be not deceived.

 

We are going to look at some sins of the flesh here.  We are going to look at fornication.  We are going to look at idolatry.  We are going to look at adultery.  We are going to look at effeminates.  We are going to look at abusers of themselves with mankind.  We are going to at some things that have to do with some passions or with some desires or some things that God placed within us.  Every one of us, God has placed some desires within us.  God has done that.  God placed within us; when He created man; He created us and put within us a desire for a man and a woman to want to be together.  God put that within us. 

 

We have lusts and we have desires.  The lusts or passions that we have, some things that God placed within us; if  God had not did what He did and the way that He did it, then the world could not have been replaced with people.  Had not God did what He did then the earth could not have been repopulated.  The desires that God has put within man are good desires.   God has fixed a way so that those desires can be met or to be satisfied in a way that could bring glory to Him. 

 

Here is the problem.  Many folks think that because God placed these desires within men and woman; we think that because God gave them desires and God placed desires in there that we can satisfy those desires any way that we want to.  The Bible does not tell that.  The Bible does not give us a license to sin.  The Word of God does not do that.  God put some desires in there but he also put some things and ways in there that those desires can be satisfied in a righteous way.  When we do that, God can bless our lives.  When we go outside of that, God judges our life.  There are folks that think some of these things because of the desire that God placed with in us are fine.  Just go ahead and do whatever you need to do and any way you want to satisfy these lusts or these passions or these desires and since God placed them with us then God’s not going to judge us because we do these things to satisfy those lusts/desires/passions that He put within us. 

 

Fornicators

 

He uses the word “fornicators.”  The first thing that we want to look at is the word “fornicator.”  Paul wrote to the church, “…Be not deceived…”  Do not think, just because God did this that He gives us the right to satisfy these desires in any way that we can.  He uses the word “fornication.”  When the passions that we have and the desires that God puts within us, when we try to do things and when we do things to satisfy those desires outside the way that God has said for us to, then we are sinning against Almighty God.  Do you know what the word “fornication” means?  The word “fornication” means pre-marital sex.  We know that he talking here about pre-marital sex. 

 

We are living in a world today where this is on epidemic proportions.  When you talk to young people, when you spend a little time talking to 12, 13, 14, or 15 year-old girls; it is nothing for them to be sexually active and they have been that way for several years.  Do you know why that has come about?  Because somewhere along the line, dad and mom had decided that instead of teaching them the truth, they are going to give them some birth control.  I know that maybe it may have some good things about some of these things.  However, do you know what we need to be doing today?  Instead of putting our teenage girls 10, 12, or 13 years-old on birth control; we should be teaching them that it is wrong.  It is wrong.  It is sin.  When people that are not married, when we have sexual relationships, it is wrong.  I don’t care how you want to look at it.  I don’t care how you want to paint it.  Pre-marital sex is wrong and God will judge it. 

 

Shame on us sometimes with some of the attitudes we take.  Instead of teaching our kids what is right, we give them a license to sin.  We give them a license to sin.  Just go ahead, this will take care of things.  That doesn’t always take care of things.  If you do a little studying about sexually transmitted diseases that we have growing rapid in our world today, you would think different than that.  Do you know what many of our young people are getting today?  Do you know what many of our teenagers are getting today?  They are getting some diseases that they cannot get rid of.  They are getting some things that are making them sterile.  They are getting some things here that are going to prevent them from ever having kids.  You might say, “That’s not happening.”  Friend, then you are living in a dark hole somewhere because it is happening. 

 

There are all kinds of people today; there are all kinds of our young people today who are experimenting with all kinds of things.  Let’s take time.  Let’s sit down and talk to our kids and tell them that this is not right.  There is a desire here; we know that it is there.  We know what is going on in your head.  Let’s take time to teach them what is truth.  Let’s take time to pray with them.  Let’s take time to ask God to help them and instruct them.  If we will do that, God will do His part. 

 

Boys and girls alike; one can’t be guilty without the other.  Not only does it mean pre-marital sex, but it means all kinds of immoral acts.  There is a lot of immorality going on.  It means, it brings out the idea of adultery.  We are going to talk about adultery here in a moment.  There are a lot of things that are happening today and people say that it is okay because God put within us this desire, this attraction for the opposite sex.  God put that within us so therefore it must be alright for us to satisfy these desires in a way that is outside of His will.  If we do that, I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what kind of excuses we want to make, it is never right and God will never bless it, but God will judge us.  Not only does it mean pre-marital sex and it brings out all kinds of immoral acts but it talks about abnormal sex and we will talk about those things some other time. 

 

Idolatry

 

The next thing he talks about here is “idolatry.”  We think about “idolatry” as something we worship other than God.  That is really what it is.  Think about something here just for a moment.  Idolatry is more than just worshiping a piece of stone, a rock or a statue.  Idolatry is more than that.  Do you know what many folks are doing today?  They are getting all these concepts and ideas in their head about God and it is not found upon the Word of God.  It is just something that they think about, they have dreamed up in their own conscious.  They think that God is this way because it fits into their lifestyle and how that they are living and what they are doing.  When we get something in our mind like that, when our concept of God, when our ideals of God don’t match up with the Word of God then we are an idolater.  That is exactly what we are. 

 

So many time we paint pictures in our minds about what God is and who God is because He is loving Father, because He loves you and me, because He sent Jesus to die for us; we think that He never going to judge sin.  When I get that concept or idea of God in my mind, and I live like that then I am an idolater.  It is a very serious thing when we worship in a way that we are not worshiping the God of heaven.  When our ideas and our concepts of God, does not match up with what is in the Bible then we are living on dangerous ground and be not deceived; there is not going to be not one idolater going to be in heaven.

 

People practicing pre-marital sex, people practicing idolatry; I know it is possible for us to be tripped up by satan, I understand that.  I know that sometimes we get our eyes off Jesus Christ and we fall into a hole.  I know that sin.  I know that we do that.  However, what Paul is talking about here is people that do these things, they practice these things.  It is something to do something one time, but it is altogether something else that we continually practice sin.  Habitual sinning means doing these things everyday.  We all have sinned and we all have the capability of falling and tripping and being messed up.  We know that.  There is a difference between messing up and asking God to forgive us and living that life style day in and day out, week in and week out, year in and year out.  That is what Paul is talking about.  If we have that kind of a lifestyle and we are living that kind of a lifestyle, it doesn’t matter how much we go to church, it doesn’t matter how much we sing, it doesn’t matter how much we preach, it doesn’t matter where we go.  If I am practicing pre-marital sex, if I’m practicing idolatry, then I am not going to go to heaven.  I’m not going. 

 

Adultery

 

We know what “adultery” is don’t we?  We know what adultery is.  We know that adulterer is someone that has not been faithful to your husband or your wife.  That is adultery.  In other words, if you are married and you have sexual relationships with another man or woman then that is adultery.  That is never right. 

 

I have talked to people before and do you know what they have said?  “If my husband would just straighten up, if he would just treat me better, if he would just buy me a few things every now and then, if he would just buy me a few roses, then I wouldn’t be out here doing what I am doing.  I wouldn’t be out here committing adultery.”  Do you know what I have heard men say?  “If my wife would just brush her teeth every now and then, comb her hair and straighten up, and if she wouldn’t look so bad when I come home then I wouldn’t be out here committing adultery with somebody else.”  You married him and you married her, when you said till death do you part; that is what God meant.  If you are still yet married unto him or her then you still yet need to be faithful unto him or her.  I don’t care what they are doing.  I don’t care what they may smell like.  I don’t care how things may look.  I don’t care if they don’t comb their hair or brush their teeth for a month.  That does not give you the right to commit adultery. 

 

I know that does not go over very well because we want to justify our actions.  “If he would just treat me better.  He never tells me he loves me anymore.  He never buys me anything.  He never takes me out to eat.  He comes home from work and flops down on the couch.  He watches TV till 9:00, goes to bed, and gets up the next morning.”  You may be a dead beat husband.  You may not be fulfilling your responsibilities as a husband.  That doesn’t give you women not one ounce of right to look for you a boyfriend somewhere else.  And you men; your wife may never cook.  She may never comb her hair.  She may never brush her teeth.  She may not smell real good. 

 

I was talking to a fellow not very long ago, and he told me how little his wife used to be when they got married.  I guess she could have fit into a garbage bag, but she was just a little thing according to him.  She always fixed her hair.  She always had on make up.  She always smelled good.  She always talked nice to him.  However, fifteen years into this marriage and two or three kids, then he was telling a different story. 

 

Do you know what I said?  It’s amazing to me that the same woman that you married fifteen years ago, that you thought so much of, and that you loved; that she is this bad now.  What has happened?  You talk about her being this big around, if my memory serves me correctly, when you guys got married, you were about this big around.  Today, you wouldn’t fit in a barrel.  There is a double standard here somewhere.  We want the other side to be this big around, but it’s okay if we are this big around. 

 

Listen guys, if you loved here when she was this big around (o) then you need to love here when she is this big around (O).  It doesn’t give you any right to go out and look for somebody else.  If she is this big around (o), or this big around (O); if you would be a better husband, she may straighten up a little bit.  If you treat her a little bit different then she may treat you a little bit different. 

 

I’m not jumping on anybody when I say what I am saying.  However, our relationship at home has direct bearing on what we do here at Campbell Chapel.  If I love on my wife and love my wife and tell her I love her at home then I just not going to come to church and be putting on a show.  I know we don’t always get along.

 

I have said this before.  I’m glad that our house up there is a hundred feet long because she can get on one end of it and I can get on the other end and she can’t find me.  I’m glad that it is that big.  I’m glad that it is that big.  I’ll tell you what we don’t do.  We don’t throw things at one another.  You will not come by there and see the windows kicked out or holes in the walls because we have been fighting.  If you are doing that at home then “Same on you.” 

 

Adulterers, or those that are unfaithful to their wives or husbands, there is nothing at all that you could say that could justify you or me being unfaithful to our husbands or our wives.  He is not doing this or she is not doing that.  I don’t care what it is.  You fill in the blank.  There is nothing that you could put in that blank where God will say “Well, okay then go ahead and do it.”  It’s not there. 

 

Effeminate

 

He says fellows; I want you to understand something.  He says effeminate people are not going to inherit the kingdom of God.  Effeminate people are lesbianism.  It is homosexuality on the female side.  I know that in this day and time that it is something that is being accepted world-wide as being okay.  We want to call it an alternate lifestyle.  We want to say that it is alright and that it is okay to live that way.  God does not say that.  God makes it absolutely plain.  He says “be not deceived” if we are living in that type of lifestyle then we are not going to heaven.  God said that, I didn’t say that.  Look at what he does though.

 

We are hypocritical many times.  We want to look at idolatry one way.  We want to look at pre-marital sex one way.  We want to look at adultery one way.  However, when we get down to homosexuality we want put that way over here and way up here.  Sin is sin.  Paul did not say that homosexuality was worse than adultery.  It said was sin and it was going to keep you from going to heaven. 

 

That is what is separating us from God.  Doing things that God says we cannot do is what separates us from God. 

 

Abusers of themselves with mankind

 

We talked about the effeminates being lesbians and here it is talking about male homosexuality.  Both cases, there is no way that you can justify, reading God’s Word in the light of what God says from Genesis to Revelation.  You cannot take that and say by this what God has said is that homosexuality is okay.  It is not in there.  You cannot prove that.  It is wrong and God says it is wrong throughout the Bible. 

 

If Paul says “be not deceived,” if you are practicing these things, you can’t go to heaven then we should accept that.  It doesn’t matter who is involved in it.  Whether it is your family or my family or both our families; when God says it then it is sin.  It is no worse than pre-marital sex.  It is no worse than committing adultery.  It is no worse than being an idolater.  Being an idolater will separate you from God.  Being an adulterer will separate you from God.  Pre-marital sex will separate you from God.  Homosexuality will separate you from God. 

 

Not only sometimes do we think that the sins that we commit because of the desires that God placed within us and we want to satisfy those desires by unlawful ways.  We get down here and he going to mention thieves, covetous people, drunkards, revilers, and extortioners.  He is going to talk about people or the sin of getting gain.  

 

Thieves

 

He is going to talk about thieves.  Many times we think about thieves as being someone that is a professional thief who plans big robberies and steals all kinds of large amounts of money.  That is included in that but Paul is also talking about petty thieves.  He is talking about people that when they walk down counters through Wal-Mart or the grocery store they just pick them up a candy bar and eat and when they get to the check out they don’t pay for it.  That is wrong.  That is stealing.

 

When I used to work a few years, at the company I worked for, we had a terrible time keeping toilet paper.  Not that people would use it, but they would steal it.  They would actually steal toilet paper and take it home with them.  Pencils, ink pens and all kinds of stuff and I know that might be petty but if it don’t belong to you then leave it alone. 

 

Many times we defile ourselves over things that are not worth a whole lot.  We defile our conscious before Almighty God over things that does not mean a lot.  Not only does it mean petty thieves, but those people that sneaks around and steals things.  They sneak around and steal things that they should not take.  They shoplift. 

 

People makes the statement sometimes well I was cold or my kid needed a coat and that is why I did this.  Christian people don’t go to Wal-Mart and steal coats for their kids that are cold.  There is something wrong there somewhere.  You can try to justify it any way you want to.  Stealing something that is not yours; I don’t care if it watermelons or gasoline, if you are stealing or taking something that don’t belong to you then you are a thief.  If you are practicing that everyday, if you are alive, if you are an habitual thief then you are not going to heaven. 

 

Covetous

 

Not only does he say that but he uses the word covetous, people that are always wanting more.  People that are always wanting more and they are never satisfied with what they have, nor what God has given them.  They are never satisfied with their lot in life.  They get this, they something else, they want a different color, they want a different brand, they want a different shape; they want all kinds of things.  A person that is a covetous person is never satisfied with anything.  A person that is filled with covetousness is never satisfied with Jesus Christ.  A person that is like who is always living for things and always wanting things and wanting gain; if he is living that life habitually, if he is practicing being a covetous person then that person is not ready to go to heaven.

 

Christian people who are living in the will of God will get to the place that they are satisfied with what they have.  I know that we are living in a crazy world today.  I know that our banking system has made slaves out of most of us.  You get ten credit cards through the mail and you get a ten thousand dollar limit on each one.  I have heard many say I’ll just pay for it now.  I don’t have to make a payment till thirty days from now. 

 

It is absolutely astronomical that on a three, four or five thousand dollar balance on a credit card at the average interest rate that most of them have today; if you make the minimum payment and if you are thirty now you will be sixty when you get it paid for and that is if you don’t charge anything else. 

 

There is nothing wrong with having things; the problem comes in when things have us.  When we are completely controlled by having things and we are never satisfied with it.  We are never satisfied.  That kind of an individual is not ready to go to heaven.

 

Drunkards

 

This is good one in today’s society and even in the church world.  We have a lot of drunkards that go to church.  We have a lot of drug addicts that go to church.  That’s great.  I’m glad they come, but the sad part is that they think they are going to heaven.  Many of our churches today teach that it is okay, just a few beers every now and then.  A little bit of wine with your dinner or you can have shot here or a shot there and its no big deal.  However, it is a big deal.

 

The word drunkard is someone that uses intoxicating beverages.  It brings out the idea of medicines and drugs that we take to accelerate our senses.  That is what we do sometimes.  It makes you feel good.  You get drunk or you get high on drugs, but when you get all hyped up then when you wake up in the morning the problems are still yet there.  If we are still yet getting drunk and we are still yet using drugs to get high on and we are doing that and practicing that and doing that habitually then we are not ready to go to heaven. 

 

I went to a wedding several years ago and the drunkest guy there was the preacher.  After they had the wedding and they went back into the back and they  had a room probably five times this big, they had five to ten truck loads of anything they wanted to drink and he was the drunkest one there in an hour or two.  I’m sure he probably came back to church at the next meeting and everything was just fine. 

 

You cannot justify, and have concepts in our minds about what God is going to do when our picture, ideal, or concepts doesn’t match up with this Bible then we are on dangerous ground.  I can say it does not matter just go on and get drunk if you want to but that does not change the fact that God is going to judge you when you do that.  Preachers can say anything.  Many people use them for an excuse.  They say well the preacher said it was okay.  My pastor said it was fine for me to do this. 

 

I have had little girls to tell me that out at the school.  Little girls saying that my pastor told me that it was okay if I did this or my pastor told me it was okay if I did that.  It’s a scary thing.  I made a profession of faith years ago and I am eternally saved, I can never be lost so it is okay if I commit this horrible sin; my pastor said it was okay.  That guy that told those little kids that needs to be took outside and hung by his ears by a tall tree somewhere.  When we teach kids to sin and that it is okay to sin then God is going to judge us.  I don’t care who we are.

 

Drunkenness is something that is out of control in our society today; that and drug use. 

 

Extortioners

 

Extortioners are people that take from you, they take money and things by schemes or force.  We have a lot of that going on today and much of it is in the name of the church. 

 

He mentions all these things but he says something that I want you to notice.

 

Such were some of you

 

He says this after mentioning all these other things in verse 11:

 

11 And such were some of you…

 

He says some of you were fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminates, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, covetous people, drunkards, revilers, and/or extortioners. 

 

11 …but ye are washed…

 

The word “but” here is a good word.  It shows us the transformation that has taken place in these people’s lives.  They were living in sin and doing all these horrible things but now he says, “Ye are washed”.  When we come to Jesus Christ and ask Him to forgive us of our sin, He washes us and makes clean, he makes us pure and white with His own precious blood that He shed at Calvary.  All the sins that we may have committed, it doesn’t matter how horrible they were when we come to Jesus Christ, He washes us and forgives us and He will never used those sins against us again.  They will never dictate how God deals with us again.  Those sins will never do that again.  Some of you were these people but now ye are washed, and ye are sanctified.

 

Ye are sanctified.  Ye have been washed.  And ye are cleansed.  Since you have been washed, you are cleansed; you are saved then are ready to go to heaven.  He said that He has set you apart from all these other things that were so bad and so despicable and so despised and so filthy—He set you apart from those things. 

 

If you are still yet committing these sins here today then you need to get saved.  If you are still practicing these sins then you need to get saved.  There is something bad wrong in your life.  I know it is possible for us to mess up.  However the Bible does not say that it is okay for you to sin and if somebody tells you that then they are lying to you because the Bible will never give you an okay to do what is wrong.  Not only has He set them apart and us apart from those sins, but He has also set us apart for His service.  Sanctification is a good word.  He sets apart from this world and sets us over here to be able to be used for His glory. 

 

He uses the word justified.  You are washed.  You are sanctified.  And you are justified.  This is probably one of the greatest words that should be in a Christian vocabulary.  I wished every one of us would get a dictionary out and learn what the word justified really means.  It goes deeper than that.  When we came to Jesus Christ and exercised faith in Him; then God looked at that faith that we had in Jesus Christ and when He saw the faith that we had in Jesus Christ, He declared me and you and these folks righteous.  Not that we were righteous because were not, but He looked at that the faith that we had in what His Son Jesus did for us and when He saw that saving faith that we had then He declared us righteous or justified in His sight.

 

It does not mean that we are all the time because sometimes we mess up. 

 

The question we need to ask ourselves is this.  Many of us could fit in a lot of those things, but if God has saved us then that is great.  God has saved a lot of us from those types of lifestyles and we know that He has.  It does not matter which one of these or all of these that we have committed; if you will just simply come to Jesus and say, “Jesus, I am sorry that I have sinned against you.  Please, save me.”  If you are honest and sincere, you can leave here washed, cleaned, saved, sanctified and justified and declared righteous in the sight of a righteous God. 

 

I want you to do that because sin is going to keep you from going to heaven.  I don’t care how you justify it.  I don’t care how you want to mix it up.  I don’t care what you want to say.  I don’t care what your opinion of it may be.  It is what God’s Word says, if we will take that, accept that, and live by that and go to heaven by that, with that and through that or we will reject and we will die in our sins and we will spend eternity in a lake of fire. 

 

You get to choose.  It is your choice.

 

 

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